Elementary teachers know that addressing a child’s social emotional needs in the classroom is an essential part of a well-balanced learning experience. After all, the ability to focus, manage emotions, and treat others with respect plays a large role in a child’s ability to stay engaged, process, and ultimately – learn! And wouldn’t you agree – giving students explicit guidance in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is needed now more than ever!
The good news – providing support with SEL in a classroom setting does not have to feel like one more thing in an already overcrowded daily schedule. In fact, the Lucky Little Learners Social Emotional Learning Curriculum provides everything you need to bring character education and social emotional learning together – in just 15 minutes a day!
Read on to learn all about what it looks like to teach social emotional learning and character traits effectively in a first or second-grade classroom – without spending hours on research and prep work!
Social Emotional Learning Curriculum: Teach character education AND social emotional learning at the same time!
Character education and social emotional learning easily go hand-in-hand because they have similar goals. Some similarities between the two include: contributing to a community, responsibility, kind treatment of others, positive decision-making, and successfully navigating life challenges.
The Lucky Little Learners Social Emotional Learning Curriculum organizes character traits and SEL components into 12 separate units, taught over the course of a full year. The awesome thing about this curriculum is that there is not a strict order for teaching the units. You can pick and choose what you want to teach – based on what you notice your students needing at any given time.
The Units:
- Compassion
- Cooperation
- Empathy
- Gratitude
- Honesty
- Kindness
- Manners
- Perseverance
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Self-Confidence
- Self-Control
Within each of these units, the social emotional learning curriculum provides highly engaging experiences to solidify each concept – and to make learning fun!
Here’s a deeper dive into the components included in the curriculum.
Monthly Songs
Music is SO effective as a learning tool for absorbing new information and improve focus. But the best part is – kids love it! Each unit includes a catchy song plus videos, song sheets, and chord charts!
Mindful Coloring
Coloring has been proven to relax and focus your brain. In the spirit of practicing mindfulness in the classroom, artist-created coloring pages are included for each unit of study. These sheets are awesome for kids who have a hard time focusing during read alouds or other audio-centric activities!
Books and Questions
There are dozens of fantastic books to read to kids that bring SEL and character education to life!
Each SEL unit includes four recommended book titles (including YouTube links in case you don’t have the book already) AND questions to trigger deep class discussions. These are also great for use as independent reading response prompts!
Home Connections
It can take a lot of time to write monthly newsletters to communicate all the different learning that’s happening in your classroom. The SEL Curriculum home connection sheets are a huge timesaver! All you have to do is copy and send home! Families will know what you’re focusing on plus they’ll have the opportunity to reinforce each concept outside of school.
Tools to Manage Emotions
One of the biggest benefits of adopting a social emotional learning program is that you get to equip your students with tools for navigating strong emotions. The curriculum includes posters and other tools kids can use in the moments they need them most.
Hands-On Projects
This curriculum is so much more than just a weekly introductory activity and an accompanying read aloud!
Your students will have so much fun creating things like self-control strategy spinners, kindness donuts, compassion heroes, empathy paper dolls, and honesty rainbows!
Student Activities
If you want to include activities to deepen your students’ learning, there are multiple ideas in each unit! You can use these as lesson-enhancing activities, morning work, or ELA centers!
Bonus Training Videos
Also, we’ve got you covered with training materials. Bonus training videos include:
- Teaching SEL through Distance Learning
- Calm Down Corners
- Emotion Management
- How to Integrate SEL into Morning Meetings
- Student Relationships
- Tips from a School Social Worker
- And More!
If you’re ready to reduce negative behaviors, increase positive social habits, and foster constructive relationships in your classroom, a strong social emotional learning program can be the key to making it happen!
Even better – when you find a program that is 100% no prep, flexible, easy to implement, and effectively blends together both character education and social emotional learning, you’ll streamline your teaching efforts!
Related Blog Posts
If you're interested in reading more about how to incorporate social emotional learning in your classroom, check out these Lucky Little Learners blog posts:
Social Emotional Learning – Why Now?
5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom
How to Support Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom
I was/am a paid member of the FB group Encouraging Classroom. Do I still need to purchase the materials or do I already have access to them?
Hi Gina!
We would love to help you with this question, please email us at customerservice@luckylittlelearners.com and we will do our best to answer it for you! Thanks so much!
Bailey Jordan
Lucky Little Learners
Is the encouraging classroom page gone? I paid for the subscription but can’t seem to access it.
Hi Lynn!
We would love to help you with this question, please email us at customerservice@luckylittlelearners.com and we will do our best to answer it for you! Thanks so much!
Bailey Jordan
Lucky Little Learners